In the field of fleet vehicle management (e.g., delivery trucks, private hire vehicles, and taxis), historically vehicles and drivers were allocated to bookings by a human operator, called a controller. The controller would be in contact with the drivers of vehicles of a fleet by voice channels (typically one shared voice channel) of a radio system, through which the controller and the drivers could speak with one another. The controller could ascertain the locations of drivers by requesting the drivers to provide their locations verbally. The controller could also enquire of drivers when they expected to drop passengers and thus become free again for fulfilling a booking. Drivers would be provided with details of bookings allocated to them by the controller verbally through the radio system. Such manual systems are still widely in use.
Some third parties provide automatic allocation of instant bookings but do not provide automatic allocation of advanced bookings or other types of future vehicle requirements. Techniques used in automatic allocation of instant bookings are generally not applicable to automatic allocation of future vehicle requirements.